There are numerous methods utilizing technically sophisticated testing apparatus in which the moisture content of grain, hay, nuts, dried fruits, beans, and the like, may be measured. The accuracy of measurement is in part related to the complexity of the apparatus utilized and also to the skill of the persons conducting the test. It is impractical for a lone farmer or layman to purchase complicated testing apparatus for his private use, and traditionally, accurate measurements of moisture content are usually made by the operators of silos and granaries in which the crop is to be stored. These operators have a large financial stake in the accurate determination of moisture content of material to be stored. The ease with which stored material can be destroyed by spoilage, if the moisture content is out of a relatively narrow preferred range, is well known.
Since the moisture content of a harvest is of just as much interest to the farmer as to the large purchaser of the harvest, less expensive testing apparatus have been widely used, which permit a sufficiently accurate determination of moisture content to indicate to the farmer the optimum time of harvest for a particular crop. Such a device is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,632 issued Jan. 31, 1956. Over the years, this testing apparatus has demonstrated its effectiveness and reliability time and time again.
The generally high prices of crops now prevalent, places a heavy responsibility on the farmer that a crop be harvested at such time as the moisture content is optimum. Further, it is essential that a determination of moisture content be both more accurate and reliably reproducible. The apparatus of this invention is an improvement on my prior apparatus and provides more accurate moisture content determination, and at the same time, a structurally more desirable apparatus.